The Ups and Downs of Christmas Time

I think I've just been through the craziest week of my life. My students were beyond insane this whole week, but that's to be expected. The fun really started on Thursday when we had our school "Let It Snow" musical program. We were in charge of teaching our own classes the songs and actions. The second grade got to do "I'm Getting Nothing For Christmas" and the "Chipmunk Christmas Song." Teaching the kids to sing a song is one thing, but getting 47 eight eight-year-olds to do actions at the same time is a different story. I learn all the action backwards so I could mirror them. So for the show, which was packed with family, friends, and random old people, I got to sit in front and do the actions with them. The absolute best part was during the first part of the Chipmunk song, the kids were supposed to sway. Right, left, right, left, stop. That was all. Getting 47 kids to sway at the same time...entertaining, to say the least. Two kids came within 2 inches of cracking their skulls together and one other almost fell over because they were swaying so big.

If that wasn't fun enough, Friday was, and I quote, "the best day of school ever!!!" Our school did a canned food drive and my class collected the most so we got to have a hot chocolate party, which turned out to mean that I got cups and hot chocolate mix and was on my own. The kids loved the whole thing. Then in the afternoon we had our class party which was crazy. The kids flew through all the games and crafts in twenty minutes, but it all worked out pretty good. I should have know something was going to go bad. It was too easy.

I survived the insanity of the last day because I just kept telling myself that I was flying home in less then 24 hours. So last night I packed and cleaned and got everything ready to go. Got up this morning at 6:30 so I could get to the airport in plenty of time for my 10:15 flight. We pulled up in front of the Sky Cap and there was no line. I was like "Wow, the airport gods are smiling on me." WRONG!!! When the guy asked where I was flying to and I said Philadelphia, he said, "No your not." Everything from Connecticut to Virginia is buried under a huge snow storm. They weren't even delaying the flights, they just full-on canceled everything.

When I tried to call Delta, they were so busy that you didn't even get to sit on hold. So I called my roommate Abby, who had driven me, and told her to circle back around and park. Then she was nice enough to come in and wait in line with me for about two hours to get on another flight. At least it was entertaining watching what different people wear to fly. We saw everything from the pink crushed velvet track suit to the lady wearing silettos and a full-length fur coat. And plus, we saw the best mullet of our lives and we never did figure our if it was a guy or girl. :)

The whole time we were standing in line, I kept reminding myself to have a positive attitude and not yell at anybody. It wasn't there fault I was stuck. This turned out to be what saved me. When it was finally my turn, I was as pleseant as can be and the ticket agent did everything she could. She worked for about 10 minutes to get me the first seat possible. While she was working, a guy came up behind me and was yelling about how the airline had screwed up and he needed to go in 30 minutes. Because of his crappy attitude, nobody wanted to help him. Lesson learned: a smile and a happy attitude will get you a long way.

So now I'm still in Utah, but I have a flight out Sunday night/Monday morning at 12:55 and I'll get to Philadelphia around 10:30 on Monday. Yes, it's annoying and it messes up my plans, but I'll still get home and before Christmas, so it's all good.

Your Life May Be Pathetic...

-If you get way over-excited about using the vacuum-sucker-tube bank system for the first time.

-When your 8 year old students start pointing out your zits, asking "Why do you have a big red bump on your face?"

-If the teenage clerk at Bed, Bath, & Beyond calls you "Ma'am."

-You go to a wedding reception of a person you used to baby-sit, before you're married.

-You show up a day early for said reception.

-If you get upset when you lose to chance to win a toy AFLAC duck.

-When you know only about 5 people are even going to read this. :)

I'm a Survivor

I lived through the first round of this years parent-teacher conferences. Wow, they really went all out this year. I always am really nervous because there are always parents who question me because of my age. It doesn't help that they all seem to think that I'm only about 20. Then I had to explain to three parents why their children were failing math. They never turned in any homework (ever), and even though I send home progress reports every other week, this somehow came as a huge shock. And of course it was somehow my fault. :)

I think the worst one was a parent who I never have had a good experience with. She came in with both guns loaded, ready to protect her child from anything negative I was going to tell her. And then for the next hour she told me every negative thing that has happened in her life and her child's life, 1% of which would have any effect on her schooling. I do want to know and understand my students, but I do not need to know about all the messy details. BWHAAAA!!!

Awesome Stuff That Happened Recently

Yeah, so I'm really slow at posting cool stuff anywhere, so now there gets to be a ton of cool stuff all together. And when you see them all together, you get a glimpse into the awesome-ness of my life. :)

Half way through the month of October, my school has our Fall Break. The dates are chosen to coincide with hunting season... yeah, we're cool in Utah. Months back, my former roommate, Staci, who was seriously the bestest roomie (after Abby of course), invited Abby and I to visit her in Vegas. Plus it was her birthday, so we really, really had to go.

We couldn't leave until Friday evening because Abby had to work. So we set off and the fun ensued. Abby and I in a car for long periods of time usually ends in laughter and mild to extreme stupidity. We had been driving for an hour or so, and the sun was starting to get in one of those annoying spots where the visor ceases to be helpful. Now, you have to know an interesting fact about Abby. She worships the sun, loves to be in it, but hates when it's in her eyes. She shouts at the top of her lungs, "MY EYES, MY EYES!!!" Since the evil sun would not hide behind the sun visor like it was supposed to, Abby started to get frustrated. I should have been worried when she started to play with the visor, wishing that it could bend in different ways. Next thing I know SNAP!

She snapped in clean off. Didn't even leave a stump behind.

But then Abby, being the inventive, creative person that she is, found that she could use a broken visor as her own personal, where-ever-you-need-it visor. The sun never had to be in her eyes again.

So to make me fell better about breaking part of my baby, Abby apologize about 7,000 times and then entertained me the rest of the way to Vegas (also 4 hours). Man, was she tired. :)

Then, in the not so distant future, in was my birthday. I became an official Old Maid by become 26. As traditional goes, Abby made me the coolest cake of my life. Two years ago, it was a caterpillar (so cute!), and last year was a whole beach scene (including Fruit Stripe gum surfboards and Teddy Grahams wearing icing swim-suits).

Since I was OBSESSIVELY watching the Phillies in the post season, Abby decided to make me a baseball cake, including the Philadelphia Phillie, which she didn't know at the time, but I have loved him since I was 4. He turned out so cute! (She made sure he had a big butt.)

After the awesome-ness of my cake, it was soon Halloween, which is my second favorite holiday. I LOVE making costumes and dressing up. And now that we've graduated from Trick-or-Treating and switch to dancing, it's even better. Abby continued with her theme of cool movie characters which people seem to have trouble recognizing in costume form.

This year she went for the lady from "The Birds." And yes those are crows, feathers, and painted on fake blood on that awesome suit. I discovered that I apparently have a great talent for painting on fake blood.

I start planning for Halloween months in advance, which is a really good idea if you make your own costume and they are award-winning (two years in a row). My friend Brian was helping me brain-storm back in August and he suggested Wonder Woman. I didn't really think anything about it, but a week later, when I was really trying to figure out what to be, Wonder Woman just kept coming up. So I did. Several trips to DI and Jo-Ann's fabric, lots of sewing, gluing, and a lot of iron-on-ing, you get Wonder Woman, the blond version.

My favorite parts are the boots and the Lasso-of-Truth. The boots were tan, mid-calf boots that I spray painted candy apple red. Then I "fashioned" the top half out of red pleather and Velcro.

And this is what you can do with my hair with a hair brush and 5 minutes. AWESOME!!!

Other random things:

• You know your favorite take out place when you start to recognize the staff who work there. You know you go to your favorite take out place when the staff start to recognize you. :)
• My niece, who is basically one of the coolest nieces ever, has her own blog, which is cooler than mine. She's 8.
• You know you're having a rough day as a teacher when the best thing you can say at the end is "We all made it out alive."
• I told my friend to bring me something awesome from Italy for my birthday. She brought me a picture of herself...in Italy.
  
  
  
  
  
  
  

Never Assume

We had an assembly on Tuesday at school. Ballet West has a school program where they come and teach the kids about ballet then do a little performance. I was terrified about how the kids would act, especially the boys. Turns out, I had absolutely nothing to worry about. They sat still for the whole program, which was an hour long. They LOVED it. The only thing I had to do was keep them from standing up to see the dancers toes. They even told me they loved the music. The performance was a 15 minute version of "The Sleeping Beauty." They loved Tchaikovsky's music. All of them were dancing around at recess. It was so cute.

Yeah for free stuff!

To celebrate Labor Day, Abby and I went to Seven Peaks for our last hoorah. The season passes were so worth it. We had already gone in the water once and were just laying out to dry off. There was a little family in front of us and they were packing up to go. The wife turned to us and asked if we wanted their rented tubes ($5 a piece). We jumped at the chance, because you can't use the free tubes in the lazy river or wave pool. We then spent the next two hours floating around Seven Peaks. We went around the Lazy River about 3 times. I was so relaxed I looked like I was dead.
Then we took them into the wave pool. We went in before the waves started to get used to it first. We've seen many people biff it getting into their tubes with the wave machine going. I didn't have any trouble with mine, but Abby was a different story. When she would get in, her legs would go straight up into the air. Then when she was trying to readjust or get comfy, she leaned back to far and disappeared. From then on, I wasn't allowed to let go of her tube. She even used the Death Grip on my leg when I let go for 5 seconds.
All and all, an awesome way to spend your last official day of summer.

I love people watching

Saturday was the bestest day ever for people watching. First Abby and I went to Seven Peaks for our weekly dose of sun and fun. I don't know what it is but when people go to the pool with a bunch of their friends, they forget that the rest of the world can still see them. Last week we saw the first Speedo of the season. Wow, words can not explain.

So we figured it was going to be tough for the pool to top that one. Never...ever...doubt the power of boys being stupid at the pool. We had two separate, but equally awesome sighting, but didn't get pictures of either (dang it). The first was the steroid triplets. These guys were there to be seen. I don't think they ever touched the water. What is with guys who think they need to be that bulky. The one guy could wear a C-cup!

Then came the big group. It was 5 guys with a few girls, so obviously they were trying to look really cool. And, oh, did they achieve their goal. Instead of swim trunks, they all opted for home-made, cut-off, denim shorts. Each had varying lengths. One had knee length, which is acceptable, but then each got shorter and SHORTER. One guy was basically wearing Daisy Duke's. And he did not have the body to pull it off. A fashion tip for the gentlemen: It's never a good thing if your shorts are shorter than the girl standing next to you.

As if the pool wasn't good enough, we also hit up the Spanish Fork Rodeo that night. The word "awesome" falls short of describing the fun, food, and people. Of course there were cowboys by the dozen and there were some FINE lookin' men in Stetsons. There was a cool old man wearing the cover-alls, the cute little boys in cowboy attire, and the prissy girl wearing high-heeled, pink Converse shoes. And let us not forget the hillbilly couple wearing their matching black wife-beaters. AMAZING!!!

Fun FHE

So Abby and I are notorious FHE gypsies. We float around within the groups in our singles ward, but we do always have a friend in the group who invites us. Last night was FHE at the bishop's and councilors' houses. We ended up going with our friend (and my former roommate) Allison, mostly because she agrees to pick us up. On the way there, we played the loudest game of Catch Phrase ever (cookie...cookie...COOKIE!!!).

Allison's group and another group were going to the Anderson's to help them clean their house, which they are fixing up to sell. They were prepare for us: there was a job chart, buckets of soapy water in every room, and enough rags to cover the floor. After an awesome lesson on hope, the mass cleaning started. Since we were the second ones to arrive, we got our pick of jobs. Abby and Allison took baseboards (I don't know why) and I got to take of every light switch cover in the house (I got to use a tool).

When you have that many people (around 20) in a townhouse, funny things just happen. They are even funnier when people are cleaning, for some reason. There were flying rags, a few minor collisions, and a little bit of dancing. And as people started finishing their jobs, there was more fun to be had. The Anderson's were prepare with drinks, brownies, ice cream, and games set up out back. I played Badminton for the first time in my life. I kind of sucked at it when we started, but it didn't matter because we played Ultimate Badminton, where you just keep whacking the shuttlecock (I was told that's what it's called) back and forth.

I also discovered that I can NOT tie a cherry stem in a knot. I tried for the first time ever last night (I don't like cherries) and I failed miserably, in front of an audience no less. And it didn't help that my friends were saying that this means I'm a sloppy kisser.

A few of us ended up stickin around and just chatting with the Andersons for a little while. They are a really cool couple that aren't much older then the rest of us, so we can all relate. We didn't realize how long we were talking and didn't leave until close to 10. We were just having too much fun.

Aunt Cindy Day

Now that my New Jersey nieces and nephew are getting older, I've started a tradition of just us spending a day together. I give their parents a break for several hours and when I return the kids, they're usually passed out, which equals NAP TIME. :)

This year I took Isabel, Cecily, and Bentley to the aquarium in Camden. This aquarium is officially cool. Not only did they have escalators, which Bentley very proudly rode by himself 7 times, they've got lots of fun things to see. They've got hippos.

They make you feel like royalty.

They have a walk-through, shark-infested tube. (I said to look scared, so Bentley ran away.)

You can even have three children eaten by a giant foam shark.

They've even got sea turtles, and these ones were, as Bentley said, "gianamic."

But I thought this one, and his friends were much better. Except maybe not the scary last one.

They hooked you up with cool shades to see "SpongeBob SquarePants in 4-D!"

And plus, you get tons of cute pictures.

After the aquarium we went out to lunch at Friendly's, which is a favorite of both mine and the kids. If you don't know what it is, you should, and I feel a little sad for you. Then, since the kids had been so good, I wanted to reward them. So we stopped by Five Below, which is an upscaled version of a dollar store (everything is $5 or below, hence the name). Everyone found exactly what they wanted, eventually, but Bentley found the coolest sunglasses ever along the way. Elton John, eat your heart out.

The Little Fireworks Show That Could

So, my family is really big on fireworks. In years past, my brothers and I have tried numerous times to blow ourselves, and innocent bystanders, to bits. We love making stuff explode. That's why we really love the Fourth of July because all other Americans join us in our passion for potentially deadly entertainment.

Now usually we are down at the shore in Ocean City. We rent a beach house and stay for a week, Saturday to Saturday. We play all week and love the fireworks show down by the boardwalk. They spend over a million dollars on fireworks! The show usually last over 30 minutes. It is amazing. Unfortunately, this year the Fourth fell on the Saturday that we had to be out, so we had to find alternate fireworks. And this was not the year to be trying new places. With the way the economy is going, a lot of towns cut their fireworks budget completely. (Good for budget, bad for pyromaniacs.)

My brother went online and found some not too far away. The directions said to go to this park, but when we get to the park, there were only a few cars there. Even though we were early, we knew something wasn't right. We finally asked some people who were leaving and they said that they had heard the fireworks were going to be a the nearby high school. So we drive over there, and we found all the people. Cars were parked for miles. Now, keep in mind, we have three kids under the age of 8, all of whom could run a mile in 5 flat, but if they are commanded to walk, "their legs are tired." After driving around, and hearing a lot of whining, we found a miraculous parking spot not far from the back corner of the field. We found a big open spot, spread out our blankets and waited.

Now, just to give an idea of how organized this show was, nobody knew which direction the fireworks would be and they said they started at "dusk." Try to explain to a 3 year old how many more minutes until dusk. But we had fun. We chased fireflies, ate candy, my nephew literally jumped on my dad yelling "Wake up!" But by 9:15, we all were getting antsy. People were shooting of their own fireworks, so nobody knew what was going on. Then we saw flashing lights behind a bunch of trees on the other side of a hill. They kept going, but we could hardly see anything. After 15 minutes they stopped. My parents thought that we had ended up in the wrong place and had missed the show. So they started packing up to go. I can't really blame them, because by this time, it was 9:45 and we had tired kids.

As we started back to the car, my niece lost it. She had been looking forward to seeing fireworks all week. She just kept crying, "This is the worst Fourth of July EVER!" We get to the car and just as we start to climb in, the sky exploded. Turns out, our fireworks show was waiting for another show to end, but they didn't tell anyone. We all ran over to a spot where we could see. And it was awesome. About of fourth of it was blocked by trees, but the kids still loved it. I had my 3-year-old nephew on my shoulders and he just kept shouting "WOW", "COOL", and "BIG BOOM!" Ahhh, the next generation of explosive lovers.

I love the shore

In New Jersey, you don't go to the beach for the day. You go down to the shore. (No matter which direction you are heading, it is always "down.") Once you are down at said shore, you then sit on the actual beach (which is the sandy, oceany part). Just thought I would clarify that first.

Every year, my family makes our annual pilgrimage to the shore. This has been going on for generations and is awesome. We rent a house and stay down for a whole week. This is truly the only way to enjoy the shore. If you come down for one day, you have a lot of fun and all, but then you have to make the drive back, with sand in your pants no less. We do it right. You sleep in, maybe ride bikes or play mini-golf in the morning, spend the entire afternoon playing/roasting on the beach, and then clean up to go play on the boardwalk at night. And the kids love it because, as my niece put it, "there are no bedtimes at the beach house."


Many pictures are sure to follow and the story of our fun trip to the aquarium, but I just wanted to put my love of the shore out there.

My Face Hurts

So yesterday was the much dreaded root canal. And if that wasn't bad enough, I had to be there at 8 AM. Voluntary torture and I had to wake up early for it? Evil! It started out not so bad. They have a head-set so you can watch a movie as they destroy your mouth. And they used one of those things to keep my mouth open for me, so I just blocked out everything they were doing and enjoyed my movie. For two hours, there was nothing but drills. I think I can live the rest of my life without ever hearing a dental drill again.

When I originally went in, they told me that when I came back, they would put in a temporary crown, and do the real one about two weeks later. But when I went in yesterday, they said they were going to do it all in one shot. They apparently have machine that can shape the porcelain tooth right in their office. So this maybe two hour appointment turned into 4 1/2 hours at the dentist! Ahhh! In between the stuff he was doing on me, the dentist worked on about 7 other patients. I really wanted to smack the guy I over heard saying that it was so painful to have your teeth cleaned by the dentist.

After my new tooth was shaped and polished (it's very smooth), the dentist came back in to put everything in. What is it with dentist and treating your mouth like it can't feel pain. By this time all the Novocain had worn off, but this guy was shoving his entire fist in my mouth. He cracked the side my mouth and my cheek still hurts today from him ripping over to the side. Not don't get me wrong, this dentist is awesome, but I think by the end he just wanted to get me out of there. When we were almost done, he kept telling me to open wider. Finally the nice hygienist reminded him that my jaw had been open for 4 hours and might be a little tired and sore. When it was all done, I walked out with a nice-new-shiny tooth, a fat lip, and a whole lot poorer.

Cheer Up the Raining Day

The weather so far for this summer officially sucks. It is cool, rainy, cloudy, and the sun only seems to come out for very brief intervals. So here's something to brighten your cloudy/rainy day.

Adventures in Dental Care

I seriously brought this on myself. I haven't been to a dentist in over 3 years. Now, that's now entirely by choice. The last time I went, I was still on my parents insurance. And now I have a job and medical insurance, but no dental. So about two weeks ago, during the last week of school, one of my top left teeth started killing me if I ate or drank anything cold. But I got by. I chewed on the other side of my mouth and lived on Tylenol. After about a week of this, I figured it's probably something more serious then tooth sensitivity. So I made an appointment, fully prepared for the boat-load of money I'd have to shell out.
The dentist is nice and everything, but after taking the x-rays, he makes a noise you don't want a dentist to make: "Oh boy!" Turns out I have a huge (I really do mean huge) cavity in my tooth. Then he says to two words you never, ever want to hear: ROOT CANAL!!! Ahhhhhhh! So they drilled and I have a temporary filling, which tastes absolutely terrible by the way), and an appointment for next week.
Let this be a lesson to everyone else: a.) get some form of dental insurance (this is costing me close to $2000), b.) don't wait three years between dentist's visits. It hurts physically, emotionally, and, worst of all, financially.

Stripper Names

The other night my roommate, Abby, and I were just sitting around when I came across something absolutely fabulous on Facebook: "What Would Your Stripper Name Be?" After much squealing laughter, we had to try it, of course. Abby went first and got the fabulous name of "Bambi." Pretty appropriate considering her love of all things Disney. Then I took the quiz and got the best stripper name ever: "Peaches." (And it must be said with a southern accent to get the full effect. After you do one of these quizzes, it asks you if you want to publish the results where all your friends can see, and comment, on it. I did actually stop and think for a second about who might see this: family, co-workers, parents of my students. But, hey, you only get to be young and stupid once. So I published it and didn't really think about it again, until Sunday.
I sat down in Relief Society with my friend Angie and we visited for a few minutes. Just before the meeting was about to start, I hear behind me, "Hey Peaches!" In all honestly I had to think about this for a second because there used to be a girl in our RS named Peachie. Then suddenly it clicked. I turned around to see Naseem, my former visiting teacher, grinning from ear to ear. We got laughing about it and I had to explain to a couple girls sitting around us after RS was over because the Bishop's second counselor was sitting behind Naseem. But the best part is that I got everyone to take the quiz too. We now have Peaches, Bambi, Bubbles, and Candy. And we greet each other as such. Although I am the only one dumb enough to post it (twice now). :)

I finally gave in!

I counted the other day and realized that I live vicariously through no less than 12 other people by way of their blogs. I check them often and love people's stories. So, now that I have tons of free time on my hands (aka- Summer Break), I thought I might just give it a whirl. Now I'm not sure if anyone will enjoy it or not, but welcome to my world!